Equal Access Public Media formed in late 2023 with the goal of building media that is accessible to as many people as possible. That includes creating and launching news sites and partnering with other media.
In August 2024, EAPM joined the Alternative Newsweekly Foundation family. ANF is a 501(c)(3) organization supporting independent, watchdog journalism that informs and educates people.
Meet our Team
EAPM is powered by people. Our team draws from a talented pool of individuals with diverse backgrounds.
Stacy Kess
Founder, Editor-in-chief
Stacy Kess is the founding editor and editor-in-chief of Equal Access Public Media.
She is reporter and editor with more than 25 years’ experience and a former registered nurse who has contended with life-long health issues. She is also a survivor of a head-on car-crash in 2017. The crash left her with a traumatic brain injury, unable to access news in a way to which she was accustomed for nearly two years. She credits this as the beginning of EAPM. Kess said this led her to her mission of decreasing the barriers for many of the 28 percent of Americans who can’t read, hear, see, or understand the news.
Kess oversees editorial and media at EAPM.
She currently lives in Boston, Mass., with her husband, two dogs, and cat. She enjoys cooking, reading, and all things Boston.
On social media at:
E. Simone Jenerson
Publisher
With almost 20 years of experience in the digital product space, E. Simone Jenerson is a passionate and versatile leader who strives to create inclusive and accessible solutions that meet the needs of diverse users. As the Head of Product Accessibility & Inclusion for Assessments at Aon, Jenerson oversaw the strategic roadmap, vision, and execution of innovative and user-centered assessment products that help organizations make better talent decisions. She is using this experience to oversee operations at Equal Access Public Media. Jenerson leverages her multidisciplinary background as a user experience researcher, technical business analyst, program and project manager, and developer to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams, identify and act on opportunities, and drive action. She has a unique perspective and a strong track record of delivering audacious and complex goals, while holding space for vulnerability and exploration.On social media at:
@lizjenerson
Ellen J. Meany
ANF Executive Director
Ellen J. Meany is the executive director at the Alternative Newsweekly Foundation, where she advises independent media outlets – among them, EAPM – looking for pathways to sustainability by diversifying revenue through fundraising and infrastructure improvements.
A graduate of the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Meany worked at community newspapers in New York and Illinois before settling into her longtime role as creative director with Isthmus alt weekly in Madison, Wisconsin. She served on the boards of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN Publishers) and Society for News Design.
More recently, Meany was the publisher at The American Prospect, a nationally renowned nonprofit public policy magazine, where she built a digital membership model from zero to sustainable in just three years, and managed grant relationships with major foundations and individual donors. She lives in Madison.
Kas Roth
Social media and marketing writer
A disabled writer, Kas Roth has a personal connection to the mission of EAPM. They are a graduate of both Purdue and DeVry Universities. After college, they worked as a biomedical engineering technician for a hospital in an underserved location. One of the most satisfying parts of their job was educating staff on new equipment.
After the hospital, they worked in a variety of industries including Fortune 5 companies as a writer. Their favorite projects were always ones that dealt with customer access. The projects that they were most proud of always included accessibility and consumer access. They believe that an equitable experience is not an identical experience.
Now a freelance writer, Roth has brought their talent and passion to EAPM as a social media and marketing writer.
Their hobbies include videogames, reading, and travelling with their wife. Visit Roth’s website.
On social media at:
Katy Kostakis
Arts, entertainment, and lifestyle journalist
Katy Kostakis will be covering arts, entertainment, and lifestyle for EAPM. With more than 10 years of experience as a freelance and staff journalist, Kostakis has written for publications including Entertainment Weekly, Turner Classic Movies, BOStoday, SheKnows, Den of Geek, YourTango, Simply Recipes, Paste Magazine, The Spruce, Patch, and Gannett.
A Massachusetts native, she is a graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. In her spare time, Katy enjoys cooking, literature, cosmetics, Renaissance and Medieval history, travel, arts & entertainment, tarot, and astrology.
Kostakis is committed to crafting informative, enlightening, and engaging stories that are accessible to all. She lives outside of Boston. Visit Kostakis’ website.
On social media at:
@katykostakis
@KatyKostakis
Kaitlin Teore
Development Volunteer
Kaitlin Teore is a member of our Development team and a passionate advocate for accessibility, equity, and inclusion. She brings a wealth of expertise in human resources and disability advocacy to her work. Holding an MS in Human Resource Management and an MA in Disability Studies, Kaitlin is dedicated to fostering accessible and inclusive opportunities for the disabled and chronically ill community.
With a professional background in workplace accessibility and DEI initiatives, Teore combines her skills in strategic planning, employee engagement, and inclusive policy development to align with Equal Access Public Media’s mission. She is committed to enriching lives through accessible news and creating equitable employment opportunities within the media industry.
Teore’s work centers on breaking barriers and empowering individuals through thoughtful collaboration and innovation. She views her role with Equal Access Public Media as a vital step in advancing disability equity and uplifting diverse voices in journalism through working on grants proposals and other fundraising and outreach materials.
Ola Ojewumi
EAPM Board of directors
Ola Ojewumi is an activist, writer, and political commentator who was born and raised in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
Ojewumi is a University of Maryland, College Park graduate with a bachelor’s degree in government and politics. After receiving a heart and kidney transplant, she founded Sacred Hearts Children’s Transplant Foundation and Project ASCEND to provide college scholarships to low-income students, funding for women’s education programs, support for global mentorship groups and literacy programs, and to distribute teddy bears and books to children awaiting organ transplants across the United States. These initiatives have reached hundreds of young people living in Washington, D.C., West Africa, and Central America.
In 2017, she became a cancer survivor after being treated for a rare post-transplant lymphoma. Presently, she works as a diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant and freelancer. She has written for CNN, NBC News, and HuffPost.
Ojewumi has served on boards for nonprofit organizations created by Gen. Colin Powell and musician Lady Gaga; has advised the Obama administration on policies to advance the lives of disabled people; and held internships in the White House, the office of former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic National Committee, and former Rep. Albert R. Wynn’s congressional office. Visit Ojewumi’s website.
On social media at:
@OlaOjewumiDC
Tobias Brevik
EAPM Board of Directors
Tobias Brevik is an AuDHD and queer data professional and process improvement specialist with a passion for patient advocacy, disability justice, and lifting marginalized voices. Zi has eight years of experience in data and has completed paid data projects ranging from public health, education, finance, and economics.
While at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Brevik did self-initiated process improvements centered around survey data quality and monitoring. At Symphonic, zi has streamlined two reporting processes using advanced SQL and Excel, saving zir team 12-plus hours a month. Brevik is currently working towards a Six Sigma Black Belt Certification.
Brevik is “tool agnostic,” meaning zi gets the job done in whatever tech stack makes sense for the project. This has led to Brevik using 20-plus tools in the span of zir career so far.
Britne Jenke
EAPM Board of directors
Britne Jenke is a speaker, disability inclusion advocate, and accessibility professional – and a disabled and neurodivergent individual.
As a self-employed Accessibility and Disability Inclusion Consultant, Jenke has many years of experience in advocating for disability inclusion and accessible workplaces. She is the author of “Making Online Learning Accessible: A Making Work Accessible Handbook,” also know as the #A11yBook. It is the first in a series of practical handbooks for applying accessibility best practices to the world of work.
Jenke is certified in accessibility, human resources, talent development, and diversity & inclusion, demonstrating commitment and competence in these fields. She partners with individuals and organizations to empower them with the knowledge, skills, and tools to design and deliver accessible and inclusive online learning and training.
She spent most of my career working with access to information through web development, libraries, and corporate training. Her lived experience with disability discrimination made her passionate about creating a more inclusive and accessible world for everyone. Jenke is on a mission to make work accessible for everyone and to create a culture of inclusion and belonging in the workplace – one pixel at a time. Visit Jenke’s website.
On social media at:
Alternative Newsweekly Foundation
Fiscal Sponsor
Founded in 2002 by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN Publishers), the Alternative Newsweekly Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to the promotion and support of independent journalism.
ANF serves as a fiscal sponsor to EAPM, meaning that it supplies 501(c)(3) status and documentation for grant applications executed by the EAPM, provides oversight so grant requirements are fulfilled, and receives donated funds on behalf of EAPM.
ANF collaborates with the Black Press (National Newspaper Publishers Association, NNPA), the National Association of Hispanic Publications (NAHP), and AAN Publishers to advance the mission behind the Fund For Equity In Local News, a sponsored project of ANF that supports more than 400 Black and Latino-owned news outlets, local alternative publications, and online news sites.
ANF continues to work side by side with AAN Publishers to support the core principles of the alternative press: Speaking truth to power, telling stories that would otherwise go untold, and giving voice to those who would otherwise go unheard.
